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What Is Your White Whale of Gaming?

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Khushrenada:
It could be anything from a console that you wanted to own, a game you wanted to play, or an event. Whatever is gaming related that has stuck in your head for years and still haven't done or accomplished or may never be able to achieve.

For myself, I'm going to select The Neverhood.

Link to YouTube for the trailer.

I'd never heard the game until one afternoon when I was at someone's house and they showed it to me on their computer. It looked amazing. What further blew my young mind was that the game was shot using actual claymation so it was all sort of real-life. Everything you saw on the screen existed in the real world at some point. The whole point-and-click adventure type of gameplay was something that was still new to me and I hadn't really experienced before but the idea of solving puzzles to progress like that just gave my brain a further charge of excitement and the question or challenge of whether I could prove to be clever or smart enough to solve it all was something thrilling to ponder on. The person I was with showed me a bit of where he was in the game and what he'd done and was now trying to figure out but one thing that stood out was this section where it was a lot of text over multiple walls. The game had this lore and back story that you could read all about at your leisure and was supposedly quite lengthy. I thought it was pretty impressive that so much thought was put into the game like that and you could just lose yourself in that history. Years later, when playing Metroid Prime and scanning Chozo Lore off walls, I thought back to this game and that wall of lore.

Even though I've always wanted to play this title, it's yet to happen. At the time, our family computer wasn't powerful enough to run it nor did I have the money to buy the game. Heck, I never really saw it for sale at the time. Years later, when I had could meet those requirements, it was no longer available and the only option seemed to be some discs on eBay at around $100 which seemed too much for a game (and I guess I still think is rather high). I also didn't want a disc. I wanted it complete. Then over time, other classic PC games started getting ported to consoles. Monkey Island got some remasters and ports. Grim Fandango was another one. I've always held out hope that The Neverhood may also get ported someday but that seems unlikely. I suppose piracy might be an option but I've never bothered with that scene because I've wanted to avoid stupidly downloading some virus or malware. However, nowadays it is probably a lot easier to find trusted and authenticated sources.

At this point, I also wonder just how well this game may have held up or if it will be a disappointment now. Having finally played Grim Fandango, there was things I liked about it but it was not quite the game I had thought it was from the screenshots and promo art I'd seen over time. There were a few times that I just got blocked in progression. I suppose I should just be more willing to quickly check a guide on things rather than waste time being frustrated and fatigued from circling over everything to try and find the solution.

Still, I hope that someday I'll finally tackle this game and go through it. To finally conquer this long time gaming memory that pops up from time to time in my mind even now. Then I'll have to step back and assess to see what might take its place as my next white whale of gaming.


How about all of you? Any one else have something like this that they ruminate on?

broodwars:
Wild Arms 5. I bought it back when I had a PS2, but I sold my PS2 for an allegedly backwards compatible PS3. Beyond being a broken piece of crap I'd have to replace in a few years anyway when it hit the Yellow Light of Death, the software backwards emulation worked for all my games...but 2: Wild Arms 4 and 5. When you pulled those up, the games would just randomly crash. It could be 30 seconds, it could be an hour after starting, but it would crash. I somehow got a few hours into both games and loved them, but they were just unplayable on that or any other PS3.

Neither game has been re-released since in North America. People have asked IIRC AkSys to re-release them, and they publicly refused for unknown reasons. Piracy is pretty much the only way to play these games now.

Order.RSS:
Haven't played The Neverhood, but I did play Armikrog, its semi-sequel on modern platforms. That's a very poor game in almost every respect besides the claymation style, and some of the music. All you do is collect levers to open doors, it repeats every puzzle thrice, and the story feels both non-existent and entirely pointless. Like an interlude between Neverhood and some theoretical Neverhood 2, which will probably never happen.

It's not really comparable, but if you like the idea of a point & click adventure in these real world crafted environments, consider giving Lumino City a try. Quite different in tone, and it uses dioramas rather than clay animation, but it's a gorgeous game with varied puzzles. It's on PC/Mac and both major mobile platforms. I don't have a lot of patience for the genre, but was impressed by the scope of that one.

M.K.Ultra:
Well I haven't read Moby Dick so I guess that is my "white whale" for literature.  8)
For video games I have been drawn to the Sega Saturn for a while now. It is a tough console to collect so I have been hoping for a mini-version like the Genesis and SNES had. I have played some of the games that have been ported to other consoles but quite a few are locked on that thing. I would also be happy with a collection or some Sega Ages releases of the games. If anyone has one or some experience with it I would love to hear about it.
The other thought I had is Punch-Out. I have all three main Punch-Out!! games but have never completed any of them. I think I probably could if I spent the time but I just keep putting it off. Does anyone know which games is easiest of the three?

Khushrenada:

--- Quote from: broodwars on July 16, 2021, 01:21:10 PM ---It could be 30 seconds, it could be an hour after starting, but it would crash.

--- End quote ---

Ooof. That's rough to be so close.


--- Quote from: Mr. Bungle on July 21, 2021, 09:46:24 PM ---Well I haven't read Moby Dick so I guess that is my "white whale" for literature.  8)

--- End quote ---

Just "Major League" it and read the comic book version. That's what a character in the movie does and it seems to be enough.

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